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California Gov. agrees to deploy National Guard troops, but with a twist

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Posted at 3:06 PM, Apr 11, 2018

and last updated2018-04-11 17:06:35-04

On April 4th, President Trump signed a memorandum that says, ""the security of the United States is imperiled by a drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border" and "the situation at the border has now reached a point of crisis."

While some governors responded enthusiastically to President Trumps plan to send National Guard Troops to the southern border, others have responded by saying they would not send troops from their states.

California Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, is not in support of sending troops to the border, but he reluctantly agreed to except federal funding to add roughly 400 National Guard members.

He sent a defiant letter to the Trump administration on Wednesday, saying the additional troops will only supplement the staffing of California’s ongoing program to combat transnational crime.

Governor Brown was also very clear on exactly what the National Guardsmen won’t be doing while they’re at the border.

"But let’s be crystal clear on the scope of this mission. This will not be a mission to build a new wall. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal immigration laws."

Brown also said that, "there is no massive wave of migrants pouring into California." But, that may not actually be the case. There was a large spike in the number of attempted illegal border crossing into the US from Mexico in the past couple of months.

According to Homeland Security and the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection report, there was a 37-percent increase overall in March, when compared to February and a 203 percent increase compared to March of last year.

The number of Family Units increased by 49-percent and the number of unaccompanied children increased by 41 percent compared to last month.

Governor Brown tweeted out what he calls "California’s Response" on Wednesday afternoon.